


Just an Aftershock

by irinokat



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 11:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irinokat/pseuds/irinokat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The morning after is always awkward, even the morning after you've saved the world and you still don't really understand how you feel about your new mind-buddy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just an Aftershock

Knock on the door, no answer. “I know you’re here,” Hermann says, sighing. More knocks, more silence. And then he realizes the door is unlocked, not sure if the thought is his or Newt’s; even the little twinge of idiot on the end could be Newt’s annoyance or his own self-deprecation. He lets himself in.

Newt lies on the bed, only movement the up and down of his chest as he breathes and his leg bouncing slowly along with it. This is as still as Hermann’s ever seen him during an episode, anyway. Boy can’t even be bothered to look up at him. Hermann maneuvers around the piles of dirty laundry and books until he stands next to the bed, glaring down at Newt. “I’m not gonna look,” Newt finally says after an awkward few moments of silence. Hermann already knew that – he could feel it in his head, no matter how hard he tried to block it out – but it still annoys him. “Would you just say what you’re gonna say?”

“Do you know how much sleep you cost me last night?” Hermann asks.  
“Do you think I care?”

“I go to my room to try to get some rest after – after –”

“After we saved the goddamn world? You could _sleep_?”

“You needed to.” Hermann sits on the edge of the bed. “And instead you spend half the night partying and the other half moping by yourself without even the decency to rest.”  
“Dude, if I could right now I would.” At Hermann’s sigh, he sits up and says, “Look, you got all deep in my head yesterday, you know –“

Hermann reaches out and cups the side of Newt’s face with his hand, almost gentle. Newt blinks in surprise before Hermann catches his lower eyelid with his thumb and pulls down. “I don’t think any of the blood has drained.”

“You either,” Newt says, glaring. He grabs the other man’s wrist but doesn’t pull him away. The staring contest goes on, neither moving, neither saying a word. For a moment, Hermann wants to slap his colleague; the next moment, he finds himself wondering if this is a good moment to lean in and – he slams the thought down, hoping Newt didn’t see that.

Newt sits up further. “You don’t get away that easy,” he says, narrowing the gap between them, but stopping a few inches away from Hermann’s face.

He finally breaks the look, glancing down at his watch. “We were supposed to be at the med bay five minutes ago.” He can’t tell if the prickle of frustration in the back of his mind is his or Newt’s. “Come on.”

“No.”

“Newton, you know –”

“Yeah, and I’m fine. I’m not going.”

“We can’t just stay connec –”

“Yeah, we can –”

“I. Don’t. Want. To.” Hermann says, tension leaking out of every word. He can feel Newt staring at him, feel the other man’s confusion and anger rising. 

“Why not?”

Hermann sighs and rubs his face with his free hand. “You were not meant to _stay_ inside my head, you idiot. But now you’re stuck in here, with me. I want my privacy. I want to be able to sleep when you have one of your – one of your episodes. I want –”

“You want to be able to _hide_ ,” Newt says, staring him down. “Again.”

“There is nothing to hide, I just –”

“Oh my god, you know I’m in your head and you can’t –”

“Well, you will be out of it soon, God willing.” Hermann lets go of Newt, but something feels off, wrong about losing contact. He slides his hand down to Newt’s arm, surprised to feel more muscle than fat. Muscles. The thought makes him flush. Before he can continue it or push it away again, Newt grabs his free hand and places it on his chest. Hermann can’t tell if the faint pulse under his palm is really Newt’s heart or a strange extension of the blood pounding in his ears – in both their ears.

“C’mon.” Newt puts his hand on the back of Hermann’s neck and pulls him forward. Without thinking, Hermann leans in the rest of the way and brushes his lips over Newt’s. “Aw, really? That wasn’t even –”

“We do need to get going,” Hermann says quietly.

“I’m not –”

“You saved the world yesterday, I’m not about to let your head completely explode before you get to be a – a –” It takes a moment for the words to come out of Hermann’s mouth, unfamiliar on his tongue. “A rock star.” He feels like an idiot for saying it. Newt beams up at him, and he can’t tell if it’s because Newt knows how silly he feels or if the man is truly that eager to step into the spotlight.

“But if they –”

“If you can fake normalcy in front of me, of all people, I think you can do it for the physicians.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Medication might help if you let them put you on the right one, you know.”

“Low blow.”

Hermann thinks for a moment. “Of course, if you were on medication, yesterday would probably have ended with all of us being torn to shreds by kaiju, so maybe –”

“Exactly.”

“You are not to tell the doctors that.”

“Why not?”

Hermann pulls Newt to his feet. “We still have to have a level of respect for them. Even if they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Right, right, whatever.” Hermann tries to brush some of the dirt off of Newt, then gives up when he realizes the shorter man hasn’t even changed out of the grungy clothes he was wearing last night. At least he has the decency to put on new socks before he laces up his boots.

“And if they try to disconnect us?”

Hermann snorts. “Oh, they can try. I don’t think they could if they wanted to.”

“If you wanted to?”

At last it’s time to be honest. “I don’t know what I want.”

Newt gives him a lopsided grin. “I think you do.”

“Stop projecting on me.”

“It’s hard not to when I have to do all the feelings stuff for two people.”

“You’re not –” Even inside his head, it takes a minute for Hermann to realize that Newt’s screwing with him. He leans in. “You’re not.” Even when he is screwing with him, there are grains of bitterness and truth buried in it. He kisses his partner – colleague – whatever the hell they are now.

They end up being almost half an hour late between the bickering and the kissing as they tread the quiet, empty halls of the Shatterdome.

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently the only things I can write that aren't porn are directionless pieces of kinda-fluffy kinda-weird things. Sorry. Hope you enjoyed it anyways. (And sorry that I'm so bad at titles. holy geez...)
> 
> (comments always appreciated, but especially with something that's going nowhere fast like this)


End file.
